Last year we didn't take enough to make this a workable meeting. Newcastle weren't playing that day until 8:00, if I remember rightly, so it was hard to make excuses but we wanted to give it one more go. It is the Eider after all. 18 runners, 5s the field. Absolute cracker of a race. So we saw what we wanted to see- a brilliant field for the Eider and we chose to stick or head in the sand about the slew of 4/5 runner races and the 11 runner job where only 2 could win and made the 7 hour round trip. After all, Newcastle weren't even playing until Sunday and an unseasonably warm 14 degrees was forecast. If it wasn't workable this year it never would be.
By 5:30pm we'd reached the "never would be" conclusion. Terrible turnover, apart from The Eider which tiptoed into "workable" purely on the number of runners and the group of 20 Scottish lads who queued up in an orderly fashion to back "Your Own Story". So, as is always the case with these things, please view "max liability" through the prism of 30 bets a race and "skinner" through the same lens. The teeny tiny lens of tedium.
1) A non event of a betting heat to start with which gave us a non event of a small win on overnight smash up Surrey Belle which looked like it could've given a circuit head start and still won on the snaff. Places and forecasts were unlaid which added a can of coke and a Curly Wurly to the fish supper we'd landed.
2) A decent take on the race of the day. We even ended up with our early liability on Your Own Story ending up as a score draw. 18 runners and you could make a case for 17 of them. We seemed to lay them all which meant only three liabilities (ILikeDWayUrThinkin, OConnell and Collectors Item) which gave us plenty of winners but not jackpot chances. Knockanore shortened and shortened and someone, somewhere must've had a nice touch but, fortunately, not with us and we ground out a decent win, if not spectacular.
3) 10 runners but only 4 who could win and the betting reverted to mean. 5 small winners, 5 small losers and the top 3 in the betting, unsurprisingly, were the top 3 in the race and we had a nice move forward but only in the context of taking merely £350 on the race
4) Only 5 runners this time and betting tepid, much like the previous race. We stood 2 of the 5 and won on outsider Arthurs Quay but, again, total take was similar to race 3 and, the way we do it, you can't win more than you take. We didn't take much, we didn't win much but I did attempt a Great British Bake Off joke about spongy ground on Genois but it was half hearted and, unsurprisingly, most folk had no idea what we were on about anyway. Including Simon
5) Much like the 3rd, on paper a decent field but, in practise, most of them double figures in the betting. We had the jolly firmly onside and had another move in the plus direction when it won but the take was pittance rather than prodigious.
6) It was getting cold. There were 4 runners. We expected little in the way of turnover and weren't disappointed. We stood Caldwell small, we won on Bois Guillbert small. I wanted to go home.
7) There weren't many left to see out the lucky last. Me and Mr Garritty managed a celebratory jig as the Arsenal result came in but, other than that, it was lukewarm stuff. An early half decent each way bet on the winner, The Best Way, ensured that we weren't cashing in late on but, fortunately we took just about enough to see almost see the liability off and skinning the other 2 places meant we played a 0-0 draw to finish.
We won more than we should've done on a disappointing take. We'll stick Simon on this one next year as his 4 hour round trip just about justifies attending whereas our 7 hour one probably doesn't.
Finally, I wrote at length regarding Premierisation yesterday. If I'm honest, my initial tweets (but not the blog) were tweeted out of a sense of utter frustration regarding the Racing Post "half term report" article which, to me, was an exercise in skewing/discounting figures to justify an argument. Once I got round to blogging, anger and frustration were replaced by a feeling of amusement and bewilderment I've not had since Kevin couldn't find sausages in a fridge that only contained sausages. I blogged with tongue placed firmly in cheek as that is what I do. From fixture lists to missing fractions buttons I try to poke fun at what I think can be poked fun at, whether it's 2 Eastern Bloc countries playing on Royal Ascot Saturday or a reconstituted pork product.
Yesterday I read Tom Byrne from the BHA patiently, diligently and factually respond to pretty much every query and complaint that the wonderful world of Twitter threw up regarding. He didn't need to, but he did, nonetheless, and deserves huge credit for putting his head above the parapet when so many other organisations put the same head firmly in the sand. I may not agree with everything and I acknowledge that I am focussed on the live aspect of the sport for my business, whilst understanding the BHA have an awful lot more to balance. I was also reminded of the student initiative from the BHA that I have always supported, and realise that everything is not binary, everyone is not always 100% right or wrong and that some stuff works better than others. We still want 7 race cards for well attended meetings in July and August though!
I don't think we're out again until the rollercoaster that is Cheltenham in a couple of weeks. Pray that it's Richmond and Guava free. Until then...
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